The US Justice Department announced Wednesday it will award $100,000 to the National Center for State Courts to review judicial safety and security. The review will evaluate security-conscious designs for new courthouses, staff training for security equipment, emergency preparedness and common standards for protecting judges and others. Court security came to the fore earlier this [...]

READ MORE

The UK House of Lords and House of Commons clashed Wednesday over proposed legislation to effect key changes to the British legal system. The legislation aims to further separate the judiciary from politics by stripping the Lord Chancellor’s traditional authority and creating a Supreme Court to which judges would be appointed by an independent panel. [...]

READ MORE

JPMorgan Chase & Co. agreed to a $2 billion settlement Wednesday in order to settle claims in a class action suit brought after WorldCom's collapse. The plaintiffs, WorldCom investors, have now settled with all defendants named in the amended complaint , except auditor Arthur Andersen and former WorldCom board member Bert Roberts. US District Judge [...]

READ MORE

The US Department of Energy said Wednesday that government employees may have falsified documents related to Nevada's Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said that, while preparing for a license application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, several e-mails from a US Geological Survey employee were discovered in which the employee "indicated that [...]

READ MORE

Leading Wednesday's corporations and securities law news, staff at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) will recommend the agency block Blockbuster Inc.'s prospective bid to buy Hollywood Entertainment Corp. saying the deal would hurt competition in the market for video rentals. The staff will make a formal recommendation to the agency's five commissioners in the next [...]

READ MORE

California Judge Alfred A. Delucchi Wednesday denied Scott Peterson's request for a new trial and upheld the jury recommendation that Peterson be sentenced to death. Scott Peterson was found guilty of first-degree murder for the death of his wife, Laci Peterson, and second-degree murder for his unborn child, Conner. In denying the request for a [...]

READ MORE